Saturday the 12th - We took the 30+ children to the Lake Nakuru wildlife refuge - plenty of amazement and so fun to hear the kids proclaim "zehb-rah" as we'd see a small herd - a bunch of rhino's - one waking within 30-40 feet of the bus - giraffe - hyena (nasty animals...) - and baboons. The kids were glued to the windows as this was the 1st time any of them had seen these animals live. You ladies would say "precious" - I thought it was pretty cool...

Lunch was fascinating - the baboons found us in FORCE!! There were 2-3 that must have weighed 40+ lbs. There were also a bunch of little ones - a BUNCH. And they wanted lunch.

Ours...!!

These boys were aggressive and they worked together to distract and grab food! Turned into quite a "circus" with one of the little one boldly going into one of the busses. Chased out easily - but the big ones were pretty fearless! It was a long bus ride and a few of the kids curled up against us nd fell asleep...

The food here has been excellent...dinner at 7 - meeting at 8:30 - 2 Advil at 9. Journal - exhausted - slleep at 3pm Atl time.

On day 2 Sunday - spent the day at church and then on to Havilla childrens orphanage. Wait 'till you see the pictures - the video - the singing - I am trying to think of a good metaphor that is not cliche - it was amazing - these were the strong voices of little kids who had only the basics - and those too were skimpy.

What struck me - a lot of stuff actually - too much for an email - but that we saw no fighting - no grasping for things commonly seen as entitlements. These kids were grace - it was so alive in these little boys and girls - 36 or so of them - 9 years old to 15 - and Tony, the big-big brother at 25. Singing along with Fee and Todd and Kristian - yup - they have the NP worship CD from last fall. Nonetheless, abandoned - all of them by their father and mother outright or left to themselves because of AIDS - and then at the end of the day they thanked US. Right.

It was THEY that blessed us - but honestly, I knew that would happen...

It was hard to leave as through the day yesterday and today their little hearts opened further to us and they would stand close and stay there - or take or hands to walk from one place to another.

By our standards - you'll see - they live in nearly abject poverty - but defined in the context of God's grace - it was the Taj Mahal. The blessing to me - their amazing gratitude -

Monday - we leave Nairobi for the desert town of Ngaamba (Gahm-bah) to lay some water pipe....